Atillio Moretti (ca. 1852-1915) had a long career in San Francisco as an artist, fresco painter, and interior decorator. Born in Milan,he came to San Francisco before 1881 and opened studios with various partners (e.g. Bernardo Trezzini in the 1880s-1890s, and Detlef Sammann at the turn of the century). After 1906 he worked solo out of his home on Hermann Street, in the Western Addition. He was a friend of Archbishop Patrick Riordan and was especially known for his Catholic church work. Moretti was prolific and highly regarded in his own time. Another artist, Emile Pissis, wrote that "Moretti was busy painting saints and angels in the Catholic churches throughout the state," and his obituary in the Catholic Monitor stated that he was "one of the best-known men in his line in California." Currently, however, he is almost unknown, because there has been an unfortunate lack of interest among historians in documenting California church art.

Nevertheless, three works by Moretti (besides the Sacred Heart altars) have recently been identified. One is the ceiling frescoes in the Convent of the Holy Family chapel at Fillmore and Hayes streets, just a block north of Sacred Heart, in 1893 Moretti designed the shrine at St. Joseph's Church in San Jose. His best-known work is the 1905 dome murals at Sherith Israel synagogue, at California and Webster streets. These spectacular decorations have been illustrated in Architect and Engineer (July 1909, p. 62) and in Sacred Places of San Francisco (Willard and Green, Presidio Press, 1985, pp. 54-55).